Elizabeth Sheridan

Notes:
Elizabeth is a candidate for the "Miss Sheridan" of County Cavan who
married Thomas Smyth
in 1750. Rhodes writes
that "Elizabeth was a firm believer in the 'Banshi, or female daemon
attached
to certain ancient Irish families.' She seriously maintained that the
Banshi
of the Sheridan family was heard wailing beneath the windows of Quilca
before the news arrived from France of the death of Frances Sheridan at
Blois. Her niece made her very angry by observing that as Mrs. Sheridan
was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English extraction, she had no
right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy, and therefore the Banshi
had
made a mistake."!

Richard
Brinsley Sheridan

Married
(1st): Elizabeth Ann Linley, daughter of Thomas Linley, in
1773. Elizabeth
was a renowned singer and beauty, a painting of whom, entitled "Mrs.
Richard
Brinsley Sheridan" by Thomas Gainsborough, now hangs in the National
Gallery
of Art, in Washington D.C. Elizabeth died of tuberculosis in 1792.

Children:

Thomas Sheridan

Married (2nd): Esther Jane "Hecca" Ogle, the
daughter of the Dean
of Winchester.

Notes:
Richard was first educated at Sam Whyte's grammar school in Dublin,
and afterwards at Harrow. He became a noted playwright at a young age -
The Rivals and The Duenna were first performed in 1775, when he was
just
24, and his masterpiece, The
School for Scandal, opened at Drury Lane on 8 May
1777 to great
acclaim. He never wrote another comedy. In 1806, William Meyler
suggested
the Sheridan would never write another play, for fear of not living up
to expectations:- In his Poetical Amusements we
find:
'Of one man, Sir, you've too much fear.'
'Fear? Whom? I dread no man's control?'
'Yes, yes, you dread him to the soul'
'Name him at once, detractive Vandal!'
'The author of The School for Scandal'

In 1776, Sheridan succeded David Garrick as manager of Drury
Lane, then
one of only two licensed winter playhouses in London. After producing The
School for Scandal there in 1777, his interest dwindled, and
his mis-management
of the theatre, especially after he entered politics, became legendary.
In 1778, his father, Thomas Sheridan, a theatre manager in Dublin, was
brought in to manage Drury Lane (but his son still banned him from
performing
- Richard still rankled at childhood insults of being a "player's
son").
Sheridan entered Parliament in September 1780, being elected in the
independent
seat at Stafford. In later life, he recalled that that evening "he
stole
away by himself to speculate upon these prospects of distinguishing
himself
which had been opened to him," and that this was "the happiest moment
of
his life". Richard rose to become one of the most notable parliamentary
figures of the age, but he failed to hold high political office,
serving
most of his time in oppostion. He served briefly as Secretary of the
Treasury
in the North-Fox coalition in 1783 (to the delight of satirists who
recalled
his financial mismanagement of Drury Lane), and as Treasurer of the
Navy
in 1806. His fame, however, came as a great speaker, most notable
during
the Hastings impeachment hearing in 1787, and for this close
relationship
with the Prince of Wales, especially important during the Prince's
Regency.
A barb from his parliamentary life that I like is "The Right Honorable
gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his
imagination
for his facts".

Richard had a choatic private life, marked by infidelity,
drinking and
money problems. His first marriage, to the beautiful singer Elizabeth
Linley,
began romantically with an elopement and two duels for her sake. But
his
infidelities were notorious, driving her into the arms of Lord Edward
Fitzgerald,
by whom she eventually had a child, although they reconciled before her
death. His second wife was treated just as badly. No wonder one his
most famous quotations from his plays is "'Tis safest in
matrimony
to begin with a little aversion."! Sheridan's finances were grossly
mismanaged.
Despite being reasonable wealthy from the success of his plays, he
spent
lavishly, often maintaining three separate houses, and was constantly
in
debt. For all his faults, his charm was irresistible -"there has been
nothing
like it since the days of Orpheus", wrote Byron.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's life appears as one of genius
potential
unfulfilled. He toyed with what he excelled at - his playwright
abilities,
treating it partly with amusement, and partly with contempt. He spent a
lot of his energy and money managing Drury Lane when he was abysmal as
a manager. His great oratorical skills and his personal relationship
with
the Prince of Wales should have set up for brilliance in Parliament,
but
this, too, was never truly fulfilled - lost in his procrastination,
pride
and mismanagement, as well as his devotion to the Catholic cause which
put him in almost perpetual opposition to the government. His personal
life, too, had the makings of a wonder - his marriage to, and
admiration
from, the talented and beautiful Elizabeth Linley was something he
never
appreciated until she died. She was his muse - and he womanised,
gambled
and drank away the woman who made him whole; after her death he was
never
the same, despite his re-marriage. He spent his self-made fortune
profligately,
and died with his house in the possession of bailiffs. He was a genius
without the discipline to fully utilise that potential.

Notes:
Thomas was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, in 1707. Celebrated
as a friend of Jonathan Swift, who was the godfather to Thomas's
children,
and wrote Gulliver's Travels while staying at the
Sheridan house
in Quilca in 1724. Later, Swift wrote a humourous poem about Quilca,
mocking
Thomas Sheridan's pride in the place:

TO QUILCA, A COUNTRY-HOUSE IN NO VERY GOOD REPAIR
Let me thy Properties explain,
A rotten Cabin, dropping Rain;
Chimnies with Scorn rejecting Smoak;
Stools, Tables, Chairs, and Bed-steds broke:
Here Elements have lost their Vses,
Air ripens not, nor Earth produces:
In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,
Fire will not roast, nor Water boil.
Thro' all the Vallies, Hills, and Plains,
The Goddess Want in Triumph reigns;
And her chief Officers of State,
Sloth, Dirt, and Theft
around her wait.

Notes:
Thomas was educated at Westminster school and Trinty College, Dublin,
and became an actor, a teacher of elocution, and a theatre manager in
Dublin.
In 1758, beset by financial difficulties, Thomas moved to London where
he received a State-pension of £200 a tear to complete a Pronouncing
Dictionary of the English Language. In 1764, he took Charles
and his
daughters to Blois, in France, to be safe from his creditors. After
Frances'
death in 1766, he returned to England, and the whole family moved to
Bath
in 1771.